Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

The Deputy has been consistently wrong on every issue. She regards rhetoric as being a substitute. I suggest she reads the report of the implementation group which is published today. Head count is one element but it also includes fundamental reform. This reform is accruing real benefits in monetary terms to the State. It is fanciful to say what the Deputy has just stated and to talk about month by month figures because there are variants within months such as particular issues which arise and the number of pay days in a month and so on. One must look at the whole period in question and this is what has been done independently by the implementation group. It has indicated that in the 12-month period under review from the end of March 2011 to the end of March 2012, a total of €650 million in payroll savings have been made. Deputy Fleming shares the Deputy's view that this is abated by a pension contribution but people have paid for 40 years for their pensions and this is included in the arithmetic anyway - unless the Deputy is suggesting they should not receive their pensions. The vast majority are ordinary workers and the vast majority of pensions are modest in size.

The real savings in pay terms is €650 million in a year. The non-pay savings amounts to an additional €370 million. This is as a result of a change in Garda rosters, a change to which had been discussed for the past 40 years. There has been a change in the rosters in the health service. A total of 4,500 people have been deployed in the health service in the past year and this could not have been done without the Croke Park agreement. A total of 1,200 teachers have been redeployed, as well as 750 FÁS workers and 1,000 community welfare officers. There have been very great changes which include better procurement procedures. This has all been driven by the reform agenda which the Deputy is not bothered to actually read.

The Civil Service reform agenda includes more than 200 actions and I presented it to the committee of which the Deputy is a member. She knows I have established a reform office in my Department which is responsible for driving change. However, there are none so blind as those who will not see.

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